(a) Upon ordering a divorce or granting a decree of separate
maintenance, the court may require either party to pay spousal
support in the form of periodic installments, or a lump sum, or
both, for the maintenance of the other party. Payments of spousal
support are to be ordinarily made from a party's income, but when
the income is not sufficient to adequately provide for those
payments, the court may, upon specific findings set forth in the
order, order the party required to make those payments to make them
from the corpus of his or her separate estate. An award of spousal
support shall not be disproportionate to a party's ability to pay
as disclosed by the evidence before the court.

(b) At any time after the entry of an order pursuant to the
provisions of this article, the court may, upon motion of either
party, revise or alter the order concerning the maintenance of the
parties, or either of them, and make a new order concerning the
same, issuing it forthwith, as the altered circumstances or needs
of the parties may render necessary to meet the ends of justice.
(c)(1) For the purposes of subsection (b) of this section,
"altered circumstances" includes evidence in the form of genetic
testing that establishes that a child conceived during the marriage
of the parties is not the child of the former husband, or that a
child was born to a woman other than the former wife because of the
adultery of the former husband.

(2) Prior to admitting evidence of genetic testing, the court
shall preliminarily determine whether genetic testing evidence
should be admitted for the purpose of disproving or establishing paternity. The facts that may be considered by the court at this
hearing include the following:

(A) The length of time that has elapsed since the party was
first placed on notice that a child conceived during the marriage
of the parties is not the child of the former husband, or that a
child was born to a woman other than the former wife because of the
adultery of the former husband;

(B) The length of time during which the individual desiring to
challenge paternity assumed the role of parent to the child;

(C) The facts surrounding the party's discovery of
nonpaternity;

(D) The nature of the parent/child relationship;

(E) The age of the child;

(F) The harm which may result to the child if paternity were
successfully disproved;

(G) The extent to which the passage of time reduced the
chances of establishing paternity in favor of the child; and

(H) All other factors which may affect the equities involved
in the potential disruption of the parent/child relationship or the
chances of undeniable harm to the child.

(d) For the purposes of subsection (c), genetic testing must
be performed pursuant to the following guidelines:

(1) The tests show that the inherited characteristics
including, but not limited to, blood types, have been determined by
appropriate testing procedures at a hospital, independent medical
institution or independent medical laboratory duly licensed under
the laws of this state, or any other state, and an expert qualified as an examiner of genetic markers has analyzed, interpreted and
reported on the results; and

(2) The genetic test results exclude the former husband as the
father of the child.
Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2015 Regular Session
The WV Code Online is an unofficial copy of the annotated WV Code, provided as a convenience. It has NOT been edited for publication, and is not in any way official or authoritative.